As shown in Japanese patent publication (kokoku) No. 61-54708, and Japanese patent laid open publications (kokai) Nos. 60-71466 and 02-175277, it has been proposed, in a stencil printing device, to remove the used stencil master plate from the printing drum or eject the master plate, and store the master plate in an ejected master plate box after compressing it as it is being conveyed or in the ejected master plate box. Compressing the ejected master plates is essential in maximizing the number of used master plates that can be stored in the ejected master plate box.
As shown in Japanese patent laid open publication (kokai) No. 02-175277, it is preferable to compress the used master plates by forcing a motor driven pressure member onto the master plates to a high compression ratio. However, the necessary reciprocating movement of the pressure member can be accomplished by a highly complex structure involving the use of a rack and pinion mechanism, and a relatively long rack is required to achieve a large reciprocating stroke of the pressure member.